Coming to Van I was nonplussed not to find the very old city, narrow streets, old houses, ancient mosques, and some Hittite and Roman antiquities thrown in that I expected. Instead I found a 20th century city. Only then did I read a bit about the subject, and learned that old Van had been destroyed in 1915 by the Ottomans, to prevent the conquering Russian from profiting from it’s existence. The region has a large Kurdish population; the Armenian section of the population, which had nationalist aspirations, was deported by government order and was subsequently massacred during World War I (source of the last line: Encyclopaedia Brittanica). Some ten years later a new city was founded to the East. So no old Van. But there is a Kale, a hill with fortress on it, well worth the visit, and an hours bus ride will bring you to Akdamar, with a splendid Armenian church on an island. I liked it so I gave it a gallery of its own.

After a September 2012 visit I finally show a decent collection of what the city looks like, unfortunately a vity that has seen two devastating earthquakes in 2011. The damage is obvious in many places, I was impressed by the people who now live on in a good humour as well as by the amount of repair being undertaken.